Watchmen, Alan Moore

I was trying to think of how to write a coherent review of this one. Then I realized it was impossible, so I should stop fretting.

This was terrible, a horrible book. But also SO GOOD.

I can't even talk about the plot, because it sounds like it's on drugs. Oh, you think I should try?

Uh, okay, there's murder, a giant squid, floating dead bodies, sex, rape, blue men, history and time and freaky things, a plushy deadly giant cat and red snow- NEVER TRUST PRETTY MEN. ESPECIALLY SMART PRETTY MEN. Squids will save the world by killing you all.

...

I told you.

ANYHOW, possibly reading half of it in a stolen hour in a library and the other half after midnight in a hotel room didn't help my mental state much. I was staring at random walls and shuddering, and my dreams were, uh, rather imaginative. But circumstances of my reading notwithstanding, the book is vivid. You just get images stuck in your head. Like the view down a skyscraper. Or boiling oil. Or red snow in a pattern. Or- *shudders* I think I need to read something fluffy before I go to bed. *searches for fluffy books*

I can't talk about the plot because of the aforementioned drugs, but I have to mention the different POVs. As different characters were followed, different styles of delivery were used for the story. For example, the Night Owl's story was told in excerpts from his autobiography, and Rorsarch's tale was from the point of view (nominally) of the physiologist assigned to work with him. Dr. Manhattan's part of the book was told in his freaky stream-of-conciousness. Oddly enough, that was the part of the book that convinced me that I had to finish it. I was seduced by time-manipulation and prose style, what can I say? (No, nudity was not a point in any way for me. I read Sandman too young, and that permanently warped my mind.)

I would be very careful who I recommend it to, as it's very graphic. But if you can get past the death, and despair, and death, and sex, and rape, and death, and nihilism, and death, and nudity, and death- it's good. (Did I mention the persistent presence of death? Several kinds of death?) ^_^ I gave it five stars out of five.